@Comrade Sibboleth: Berlin-Treptow-Köpenick is the constituency, Gregor Gysi won twice with much more personal votes than votes for the Left Party list. As long as Gysi stands there, it should be safe.

Oh, sure, sure. I was originally going to mention him. But it's not quite in the automatic category, at least in the event of their vote halving or whatever.

« Last Edit: June 07, 2012, 11:58:29 am by Comrade Sibboleth »

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"The Norwegians hate the Swedish and the Swedes they hate the FinnsThe Finns they hate the Russians and the Russians hate the YidsSpicks and Wops and Greasers; Kikes and Spades and Ginny HensHatred's blowin in the wind; 10 million outcasts"

Okay, I've got another random question. What are Kraft's positions on Agenda 2010 and the Harz laws?

Support in principle, but needs some corrections.

A fairly standard post-Schröder SPD position.

What kind of corrections? And what does "in principle" mean? Is it that she thinks that the bulk of the "reforms" were good, or more of a general "we support fiscal responsibility, but this was the wrong way to go about it" type of thing? Willy Brandt would be horrified to see what has become of the SPD.

The chancellor remains Germany’s most popular politician, with 66 percent saying said she is doing a good job, eight percentage points more than in June and the most since December 2009, according to the monthly Infratest Dimap poll released late yesterday. A record 85 percent said the worst of the turmoil lies ahead, ARD said in an e-mailed statement.

Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was Merkel’s chief of staff during her first term between 2005 and 2009, had the second-highest approval rating. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merkel’s Social Democratic challenger in the 2009 election, tied Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble for third place with 61 percent.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc would win the largest share of the vote, 35 percent, compared with 30 percent for the Social Democrats, if elections were held now, according to the poll. With 4 percent support for Merkel’s Free Democratic Party ally and 14 percent for the Greens, which were part of a Social Democrat-led government from 1998 to 2005, the poll indicates that neither combination would have a majority in parliament.

The July 2-4 poll of 1,004 people had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

In case someone still cares about the BaWü elections of 2011... the American legal tradition equivalent of the newest development would probably be "Stefan Mappus indicted" for his role in the EnBW purchase.

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"The secret to having a rewarding work-life balance is to have no life. Then it's easy to keep things balanced by doing no work." Wally

"Our party do not have any ideology... Our main aim is to grab power ... Every one is doing so but I say it openly." Keshav Dev Maurya

So, as expected by all who can and did read (read the 2008 court verdict and the new election law, that is), a number which does not include many government politicians or any political journalists, Angela Merkel's election law is even more unconstitutional than the old one.

The court did its utmost to save her face - it did not octroy a new election law of its own making (though it said it would do so if there's no new law by spring 03) and it did not rule Überhangmandate unconstitutional per se - but because the journos understand nothing of the matter and did not expect the verdict, they are failing to notice that. Unanimous verdict btw.

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"The secret to having a rewarding work-life balance is to have no life. Then it's easy to keep things balanced by doing no work." Wally

"Our party do not have any ideology... Our main aim is to grab power ... Every one is doing so but I say it openly." Keshav Dev Maurya

and it did not rule Überhangmandate unconstitutional per se - but because the journos understand nothing of the matter and did not expect the verdict, they are failing to notice that. Unanimous verdict btw.

Well, as of now, where "internal" Überhangmandate are possible, there is negative vote weight. Of course the mode of seat allocation could be changed to fix seat contingents per federal state (as in Spain or Finland for example). But this would not be a voting system not proportional as a whole, as the Constitutional Court demanded.

And if half of the seats should be given to the winners of single seat constituencies, as is the case since 1949, there would not be any possibility of compensation for the Überhangmandate. But the court demanded that 15 is the constitutional limit.

And there would be one argument less for the five percent threshold.

So maybe this easiest way to get rid of the negative vote weight, is not possible by constitutional restrictions and political opportunity.

So, as expected by all who can and did read (read the 2008 court verdict and the new election law, that is), a number which does not include many government politicians or any political journalists, Angela Merkel's election law is even more unconstitutional than the old one.

The court did its utmost to save her face - it did not octroy a new election law of its own making (though it said it would do so if there's no new law by spring 03) and it did not rule Überhangmandate unconstitutional per se - but because the journos understand nothing of the matter and did not expect the verdict, they are failing to notice that. Unanimous verdict btw.